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Former top Maori entertainer Rhonda Syrena Bryers' death in Hawaii in September was from a "superbug", it was reported tonight.
But the methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was unusual in that it was not acquired in hospital or through any obvious wound, Honolulu's medical examiner Dr Kanthi De Alwis said.
Bryers, best known in New Zealand and Hawaii under her stage name "Rhonda", was the first sudden death he had seen from MRSA which was not acquired in a hospital, Dr De Alwis told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
"She was a 55-year-old female who was a healthy, normal individual who did not have any medical condition that could have weakened her immune system," Dr Alwis said.
Classically trained, Bryers sang mainly popular music, including a lot of her own songs, to become entertainer of the year for four years in a row in New Zealand in the 1980s, before moving to work in Hawaii.
The daughter of Betty and the late Ron Bryers, a Maori rugby star, she was born in Taumarunui and is survived by two sons, Scott, 31, and John, 20, and her partner Rick Bench.
- NZPA
